Dale and Jena Forehand

It seems that I find myself having different circumstances come my way, but housing the same struggles I've had for quite a while in my life. It may involve different faces, different people, but the same problem. (The old song "she'll be coming round the mountain when she comes", rings pretty loud in my ear right now!!!) But with each passing situation, I have learned a little bit more.....I've grown a little bit more.....and find the confidence that next go round, I'll conquer this thing with the Lord's help.

When we've found ourselves in dry, barren places, the last thing we want to do is go back to where we came from and face what we have just recently left behind. Reality is, that when we have been drawn away into seclusion and God has spoken to us and seen us, He many times sends us back from whence we came. Sometimes He sends us back to very miserable place.

It reminds me as a kid when I would fall off my bicycle. The first thing that I would do is run to my parents and want to quit and run away. My parents, however, always sent me back to get on that bike. They would tell me to get back on it and try again and not let it beat me. They would hold on to the back end of that bicycle and encourage me to try it one more time, letting me help them.

Towards the end of Elijah's journey to the Mountain of God, Horeb, and his incredible meeting with God, Elijah receives this command:

1 Kings 19

15 The LORD said to him, "Go back the way you came...."

Why? Why does God choose to send us back into hurtful, miserable situations? Because no one comes into the presence of God without receiving a new-found purpose and new-found power, because of a new-found perspective. Everything changes in the Presence of God. And it is that change in you that was needed all along for that miserable place you were in.

Think about it: Moses is sent back to Egypt, the one place he would have chosen never to return to, to reclaim God's chosen people, and he does so with incredible purpose, power, and perspective. Hagar is sent back to face Sarai but now has a new purpose, power, and perspective. Elijah is sent back with new purpose, power and perspective.

And what was the new perspective?

GOD IS WITH ME!

HIS PRESENCE IS WITH ME!

THOUGH MY CIRCUMSTANCES HAVE NOT CHANGED, I HAVE CHANGED!

I AM CONFIDENT BECAUSE

GOD'S PRESENCE IS WITH ME!

And when we return to those places with this new perspective, with accompanying power and purpose, we find that:

OUR GREATEST MISERY HAS SOMEHOW BECOME OUR GREATEST MINISTRY

Wherever you find yourself in your barren place, God wants you to go on a journey less traveled. A journey back into His presence where everything changes......everything within YOU changes, and your once miserable place becomes a powerful ministry to others.

2 Corinthians 1

3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.

Have you ever heard your children say this to you? Or anybody else for that matter? That statement means that they want something out of you, and quite honestly, sometimes I have nothing to give; and yet when someone asks for a favor, it seems so wrong to say "no"!!!

When the Bible speaks of God's favor, the good news is that it does not mean that God is wanting us to do more for Him. As a matter of fact, it is quite the opposite!

The word "favor" in the Bible actually means "to turn one's face towards". It reminds me of times when there has been a crowded room and I have heard my child or husband's voice. I turn towards the sound of their voice because they are so important to me that I would turn to them above any other voices that might be amplified around me. I have showed them "favor".....because they are my favorite.

So it is with God. He shows us His favor when we are in the midst of our lowest place in life.

1 Kings 19

10 Elijah replied, "I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too."

11 The LORD said, "Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by." Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. 12 After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.

Elijah has been secluded so he can get alone with God. He has heard the voice of God speak to him to get him to admit where he was spiritually apart from God. And now as Elijah shares where he is, God lets Elijah know that He sees.

When you are in the midst of your struggles and feel alone and barren, so often we feel that god has forgotten us and that He does not see nor care what we are going through. And yet, in our most desolate place, the Lord comes near to let us know that He does see, whispering His love and His presence to us.

Psalm 145

18 The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.

19 He fulfills the desires of those who fear him;
he hears their cry and saves them.

Reminds me of Hagar in the book of Genesis. God has told Abraham and Sarah that they will have a child and yet Sarah does not believe and gets ahead of God and gives her handmaiden, Hagar to Abraham. Hagar conceives and Sarah gets so mad about it. She sends Hagar out into the desert to fend for herself or die. Hagar is alone and in desperate need of help.

Genesis 16

6 "Your servant is in your hands," Abram said. "Do with her whatever you think best." Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her.

7 The angel of the LORD found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. 8 And he said, "Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?"
"I'm running away from my mistress Sarai," she answered.

9 Then the angel of the LORD told her, "Go back to your mistress and submit to her." 10 The angel added, "I will so increase your descendants that they will be too numerous to count."

11 The angel of the LORD also said to her:
"You are now with child
and you will have a son.
You shall name him Ishmael,
for the LORD has heard of your misery.

12 He will be a wild donkey of a man;
his hand will be against everyone
and everyone's hand against him,
and he will live in hostility
toward all his brothers."

13 She gave this name to the LORD who spoke to her: "You are the God who sees me," for she said, "I have now seen the One who sees me." 14 That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi ; it is still there, between Kadesh and Bered.

Notice that in Hagar's desolate state, she was not only secluded, but she was spoken to in the form of a question, just as Elijah. Hagar names the Lord, El Roi, which means "the God who sees" because He had seen her plight and had come to her aid. And the angel of the Lord told her to name the baby Ishmael, which means "God hears".

When you are in a stale, dry place, know that God secludes you, speaks to you, and sees you. He hears your plea for help; He sees your pain and struggle, and He draws near, if we would but be still and hear His still small voice speak His Presence and His Peace over our lives and situations, that appear hopeless.

Growing up, I was the middle of three girls. One day, I found each one of us girls baby books. My mother had written a note in the front of each of them and they were each addressed by name with the first sentence being, "You were my favorite because.....". I was a bit miffed and felt cheated until my mother shared the truth was that we were all her favorites for different special reasons!!!

If you are in need of God's kind of favor....if you need to know that He is near, that He sees, that He has turned His face toward you, you simply call out to Him and ask for His help. Based on the truth and the authority of God's Word, He will come and save you. He will turn His face towards His favored one. And He will whisper His Peace and His Presence over you.

As Elijah reaches Mount Horeb, the "barren desolate" place that mirrors his very own soul, God takes him on a great journey with Him. First, God secludes Elijah in order to get him alone so he could know the Presence of God. So often the roars of life are so loud that we just simply cannot hear God and we forget His Presence in our lives.

After God secluded Elijah, He spoke to him.

1 Kings 19:9b

And the word of the LORD came to him: "What are you doing here, Elijah?"

Sometimes when we get in the pit or dry place in our lives, we want God to speak to us as to how to fix things. A friend of mine the other day said that if God would be like Charlie the Tuna commercial and just send a little note on a hook down to her, things would be much better for her! And yet, instead of giving us the "quick-fix" answer we desire, God gives us a question. "What are you doing in this barren and dry place?"

Now, do we follow a clueless God who did not know the answer? Absolutely not! So, if the question was not for Him to get the answer, then who was the question for? Us! God gets us alone with Him and He asks us where we are, what we are doing and why. And He asks this so that we can evaluate our spiritual condition. He wants us to admit that we have strayed away from his Presence and tried to do things on our own. He wants us to admit that we have forgotten what He is able to do. He wants us to admit that we are in desperate need of Him.

Matthew 5:3

"Blessed are the poor in spirit"....fortunate are those who recognize that apart from God, they are toast. God wants us to come humbly before Him and admit that we are bankrupt apart from His grace, and are in need of His help.

Isn't this questioning familiar to us, going all the way back to the beginning?

Genesis 3:9

But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?"

The first question God asked Adam and Eve as well as Elijah is the very same question He asks you and I today in our days of emptiness, in our dry and desolate places. Why? Because desolation compels desperation and desperation drives us to dependence.....it drives us back into the Presence of God: the Only One we can depend on to work all things for our good.